Gerry Dulac: Rooney Savors 'Exciting Times' in City

Friday, January 21, 2005
By Gerry Dulac, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Dan Rooney and the Steelers are back in the AFC championship game for the fifth time in the past 11 years, still looking for a fifth Super Bowl trophy to add to the four on display at the team's South Side headquarters.

It has been 25 years since the Steelers won a Super Bowl, but their impact on the National Football League and the dominance they displayed for a six-year period in the 1970s is unmatched in league history.

Curiously, the team standing in the way of a possible trip to another Super Bowl -- New England -- threatens to challenge the Steelers of the '70s as one of the league's foremost dynasties. If the Patriots win Sunday at Heinz Field, they would do something the Steelers never managed to accomplish -- advance to their third Super Bowl in four years.

"I think that has a lot to do with the organization, the coaches," Rooney said, referring to the matchup featuring the AFC's top teams, record-wise -- the Steelers (16-1) and Patriots (15-2).
"If they get someone hurt, they are not going to throw the towel in. I think that both teams have done that. They've had injuries and overcome them, put people in, and the people that they put in rose to the occasion and have done well."

Rooney said "these are exciting times" in the city, which is playing host to a conference championship for the ninth time since 1970, more than any other franchise (San Francisco is second with eight).

The Steelers had the league's best record in the regular season, are riding a club-record 15-game winning streak and have bounced back from a 6-10 season in 2003 in which Rooney said he never considered replacing his coach, Bill Cowher.

"If you have a good coach, you want to stick with him," Rooney said.

"We weren't the least bit excited or depressed last year. The media was, but I think our fans were fine. We had every intention of keeping him here. That was never an issue.

"Teams that makes changes, that's their business and I don't want to call them names. When you make a change, you are starting all over. I think that's foolish because it's almost like an expansion team where you're going back to the beginning.

"Within the last 30-some years, we've had two great coaches. We're very fortunate to have had them and we want to stick with them."

Rooney, who took over the team from his father, Art Rooney Sr., has passed most of the daily operation of the team to his son, Art II. The transition became official -- sort of -- before the start of the 2003 season, when Art II was listed in the Steelers' media guide as team president.

But, in typical Rooney fashion, there was never an announcement on the promotion.

"I think it's an important thing to have families in it because there is tradition," Rooney said.
"As you know, I replaced my father. My son now has replaced me. They talk about passing the torch -- he grabbed it out of my arm. I think that's a good thing."